I'm probably very late to the party but I just received one of the Ellusionist 1800 decks last week and I was absolutely floored at how cool this deck is - all the little details add up to one beautiful little gem.

I made it into an invisible deck last night and the weathered look of the vards, the box, and all the little details add up to a killer ID.

I know this deck doesn't have the ultra smooth finish that some would seek out for fanning, but for an ID these 1800 decks are just the bomb.

Makes my regular ID's feel like a yawn... and it is easy to add some extra patter as to the history of this old beat up deck and the magical qualities within it.

http://www.ellusionist.com/vintage-serie......rds.html

By the way, I sprayed the box with a light coating of the Krylon 1311 Matte finish and it was ideal for dulling the shiny look of the box down.

Now I need to figure out a way to remove that pesky 1800 vintage bar-code at the bottom!

That's a bold move for a custom deck.

I love the Vintage 1800, I can Faro them nicely and better than 808 decks I guess. As for spreading, I don't feel any trouble as it spreads nicely on a close-up pad. If this deck doesn't cost me that much, I would probably use it as my everyday deck.

The look is great, the handling and quality is awesome. One of the best decks I've seen (well, since I'm pretty much new at this hobby, so I haven't seen many to be honest hehehe)

I hadn't seen these yet and they are beautiful. Thanks for sharing them, I am definitely going to pick some up.

You should, this deck looks vintage so it could give more touch to the effect you're doing for them.

Poker stories, mind reading, mentalism, etc. Also good for KK by KK, and would floor them if you also use a Heirloom Wallet.

Just a small addition -

As I mentioned, I used the same Krylon 1311 spray that I used for the R&S for the ID to dull down the shine of the beautiful card case.

This morning I also made another small enhancement: I carefully wet the bottom of the card case slightly with a black Lipton tea bag that had been steeping. This allowed me to carefully remove just the smallest layer of the bottom barcode, leaving bare white. Then I dabbed the tea bag on the bottom again, and beautifully yellowed/discolored the bottom which matches perfectly with the rest of the case giving it a complete beat up/vintage look with no bard code visible.

Hey, maybe a little too anal but it looks great I think. I used to use this idea with my kids to make fake treasure maps when they were little.

Not at all. Those are the exact touches I'd look for, especially where the bar code is concerned.

My 1800 deck started to clump after some use, and not even fanning powder would save it from death. Not just stopping me from fanning, but even DLs and other regular sleights became harder to do. It was tragic because the cards are really quite beautiful, both front and back. It's the strangest thing too, for only the 1800s ever died on me: my Bicycles (and other custom Ellusionist decks) from way back undergoing the same amount of use still work perfectly.

P.S. the back has a secret one-way design built into it. Check the top-left corner.

Could you please PM on how the one way design works please???

Thanks!

Just riffle it on your hand and you'll see it

Thanks for the kind words guys. Glad you like em. I spent countless hours on the art pad drawing every single one of those little cracks and weathered effects. Good times.

Good news, I have initiated a new run of 1800's at USPC with a new finish which should solve our fanning problem. These decks have so much ink saturated in them that they become unwieldy after a finish is applied. That problem is finally solved. I expect their availability to be in January.

If the clumping problem is fixed with the next run, I'll definitely pick up one - or one dozen - of these beautiful cards. Will all orders made in January (or whenever the new run is complete) be made with the new finish?

Jason - Thanks so much for chiming in on these beautiful decks. To me there is nothing quite like them and even the box got the weathered look.

I can only imagine how much work you put into these - I mean every card face looks like an individually wrinkled & crackled time warp.

I have many decks and these are my personal favorites because there is nothing else that own like them.

Question though: Any possibility of losing the bar code at the bottom box? I would get that would be a "no" because you probably need to sell at some retail level but it would be a nice touch.

If not do as I did and wet the bottom of the box gently with a Lipton black tea bag and gently rub the bar code away, then stain the bottom up with the tea bag and voila... oldness reigns again!

*Please let us know when we can order the new batch. Will we need to specify when ordering? I would not mind paying a few $ more if they are smoother with less clumping.

My own preference when using these decks (which admittedly isn't often) is to put the deck inside a weathered (but nice) cloth bag. To me, that's probably a bit more genuine to how they were used/carried in the old days. It gives the deck that added provenance that can really sell an effect/routine.